


Notation

by Mithen



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-22
Updated: 2015-04-22
Packaged: 2018-03-25 05:15:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3798106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mithen/pseuds/Mithen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>  His first day on the Justice League, Roy Harper notices Batman has some peculiar note-taking habits.  Investigations follow.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Notation

**Author's Note:**

> This is a crosspost of an older work from LJ, set right after a time-jump in the comics; Roy Harper has just joined the League as Red Arrow and Superman has just re-joined the League after a year without powers.

Red Arrow sat down for the first time at the great table of the Justice League.  
  
As Black Canary introduced each member, Roy sneaked glances around the table.  Vixen and Geoforce seemed enthralled;  Green Lantern had a nostalgic smile on his face as he watched Canary speak;  Wonder Woman and Superman were both nodding and smiling;  next to Superman, Batman was...taking notes?  Well, he had a notebook out and he was scribbling in it, sometimes glancing up at Black Canary and nodding grimly--Roy assumed the adjective "grimly" could generally be applied to everything Batman did.  He nodded grimly, took notes grimly, tapped his pen grimly--hell, the man probably ate bananas grimly.  
  
Roy wrenched his mind from that improbable image, fighting a sudden case of incongruous giggles.  It would hardly do for Red Arrow to get snickering uncontrollably at his first JLA meeting.  
  
As Black Canary explained the layout of the new Watchtower, Roy sneaked a glance at the notes Batman was writing.  Then he squinted.  The notepad was a mess of indecipherable dots and circles, diamonds and lines:

[ ](https://i.imgur.com/YCViC4c.gif)

As Roy tried not to watch too overtly, Batman added another line of scrawling doodles:  
[](https://imgur.com/smMbYBe.gif)   
Was it some kind of shorthand?  It didn't look like any shorthand Roy

knew--but then, the odds that Batman would use a form of shorthand that _anyone_ knew was surely zero.  
  
Black Canary nodded at the Dark Knight.  "And now, Batman will explain how our new transporter system works."  
  
Batman rose in a swirl of black cape and began to explain the transporter system, drawing diagrams on the electronic board with a precise, accurate hand.  As he sketched and explained (grimly, of course), he also added little lines of notation in the same scribbly handwriting.   
[](https://i.imgur.com/IeCJNHg.gif)

  The scribbles formed an abstract, almost lacy border around the technical drawings.    
.  
  
Roy looked around the table, but no one seemed curious about the scribbly flourishes Batman was putting on his work.  Superman was biting his lip slightly, as if he were bored or biting back a laugh.   Batman doodled absently while explaining how the "slideways transporter" worked at a quantum level.    
  
Superman coughed into his hand and Batman stopped writing.  "Yes, Superman?  Something you wish to add?" he asked.  
  
"I think we've gotten the basics well enough, Batman."  
  
Batman added a tiny doodle to the corner of the board:    
  
  "And _I_ believe it's important that everyone fully understand the theoretical quantum mechanics involved.  You see, with this new quantum engine, the charm-flavored quarks interact with the top and bottom quarks to form a baryon that--"  
  
Superman's fingers were drumming the table hard enough that Roy was afraid they might dent it. _"Please,"_ the Kryptonian said, his voice agonized, and Batman smiled very slightly.   
  
"Very well, if I have the chair's permission to skip to the essentials?"  Batman nodded at Black Canary.  
  
"Oh yes, certainly," Black Canary said hastily.  
  
Batman wrapped up the explanation surprisingly quickly after that.  As he wiped the board clean, Superman jumped to his feet and nodded to everyone, then left the room as if he couldn't wait to get away.   
  
Red Arrow touched the shining table in front of him, felt the seat-- _his_ seat--solid beneath him.  He supposed this was all old hat to Superman, but he couldn't imagine it.  
  
**: : :**  
  
"Oh yeah, the Bat-doodles," Oliver Queen said as he nocked his bow and hit the target dead center.  "He still does those?"  
  
Red Arrow took his turn, his arrow landing a couple of millimeters from Ollie's.  This would have been more upsetting to Roy if he hadn't been swinging upside-down from a trapeze while shooting.  "Yeah, he's a compulsive scribbler.  No idea what they are?"  
  
Ollie's voice was uninterested.  "I think it might be Kryptonian, actually."  
  
"Kryptonian?"  Roy watched as Ollie prepared his next shot.  "Wouldn't that mean Superman can read them?"  
  
Ollie grunted and released the arrow.  "I guess.  They must not be very interesting, though, because Big Blue never complained at all.  You know the Bat, his mind's always working on at least two levels at once.  They're probably private notes about some devious new plan to make us all miserable."  Roy snorted and Ollie reached out to spin the trapeze in a wild circle.  "Okay, hotshot, beat my shot now."  
  
Roy just grinned and nocked his bow.  
  
**: : :**  
  
The notes were everywhere.  Everyone else seemed to treat them as just some kind of random decoration, but once Roy started noticing them, he couldn't seem to stop.  They were left on the Watchtower monitors at random times:    
  
  They were scribbled in the margins of Batman's notes at meetings:     
  
  Once Roy saw them sketched into the condensation on a mirror in the communal showers:   
  
  Roy watched Superman carefully, but the Kryptonian hardly seemed to notice them.  
  
The latest one was tacked on the Watchtower refrigerator.  Roy was puzzling over it--  
\--  
when Green Lantern came in and opened a cabinet.  "Wow, there are always Chocos available now," Hal said mostly to himself, sounding pleased and sad at the same time.  He noticed Roy's puzzled face as he bit into a cookie.  "What is it?"  
  
Roy pointed to the note.  "Ollie said these notes were probably in Kryptonian.  Can't your ring translate for you?"  
  
Hal laughed and held up his hands.  "Yes, yes it can.  In fact, I translated one of those notes, way back when the JLA was just starting."  He ran a hand through his chestnut hair.  "I never made _that_ mistake again."  
  
Roy leaned forward, curious.  "What did it say?"  
  
Hal smirked.  "Trust me, kiddo, you do _not_ want or need to know."  
  
As Roy sat there, baffled, Superman strolled into the kitchen and opened the fridge, grabbing an apple.  He glanced at the clock and almost dropped the fruit.  "Whoa," he said under his breath.  The apple was gone in an instant, the core rattling in the waste disposal.  "Sorry to run, Lantern, Arrow, gotta go," he said, and was gone.  
  
Roy opened his mouth;  Hal spoke over his words, "--And no, I do _not_ recommend asking anyone else what they say either.  Just a word to the wise."  He winked at Roy and left the kitchen, whistling to himself.  
  
Apparently, Roy thought in bemused annoyance, this was just one of those Secrets of the League that he would never be granted access to.

**Author's Note:**

> Mouse-over alternate text is handy!


End file.
